Axis's explosive combat prowess had once again stunned everyone present. Alexander Luthor had no means of fighting back whatsoever and was thoroughly beaten.
Superwoman, who had previously been so deeply invested in Alexander Luthor, now wore a look of undisguised disgust. Damn it, the bastard had just lost. How could he fail?
She despised the weak. She would only bear the offspring of the strongest. Her target had once been Ultraman, and after Alexander Luthor appeared, it had shifted to him.
But now it seemed she had chosen wrong again. Fate had decreed that as the last descendant of the Amazons, she would give birth to the mightiest heir who would rule the entire universe.
The powerful being standing before her was not only a god but also possessed extraordinary combat ability. Perhaps he was the perfect candidate.
The problem, however, was what to do about the power of Mazahs, the ability to plunder others' strength.
In theory, her child should be able to wield Alexander Luthor's power and would be even more perfect and superior than its father.
Because an Amazon princess was destined to produce offspring superior to the child's father. What a dilemma.
"This is unbelievable. That guy actually lost to you. My God, aside from Ultraman, we now have another way to counter him." Johnny Quick stared at Alexander Luthor lying on the ground like a dead dog, his face brimming with excitement.
Ultraman, on the other hand, regarded Axis with deep wariness. This newcomer's strength was simply too overwhelming. Two fights had been enough to crush any thought of resistance in him.
Damn it all. If only he could absorb more Kryptonite, he could grow even stronger.
"Alright, it seems your so-called secret weapon isn't all that impressive. I can tell you plainly that with his level of power, he wouldn't last two rounds against the Anti-Monitor." Axis shook his head.
During his fight with Alexander Luthor, he had deliberately held back, taking the opportunity to observe his opponent's combat style.
What he found was that the man employed all manner of superpowers, but nearly all of them were at an amateur level.
He had never truly trained any of those stolen abilities and relied entirely on plunder. As for his raw physical attributes, they were roughly on par with Ultraman's at best.
But the Kryptonian of this universe was no parallel-world Superman. Ultraman's resistance to magic was exceptionally high, practically maxed out, which was precisely why he had been able to defeat Alexander Luthor before.
"To be honest, I overestimated you." Axis hauled the half-dead Alexander Luthor up by the collar.
"Damn you, you bastard. I'll surpass you one day. I'll rip your head off." Alexander Luthor glared at Axis with savage eyes.
Despite his bruised and swollen face, his gaze and bearing remained utterly resolute. This was a man who would never submit to enslavement. Axis could see it clearly in his eyes.
"Unfortunately, you won't get that chance. Let me ask you all something. This man's ability should have been granted by a wizard. Do any of you know how to strip him of his power?" The abilities of Shazam and Mazahs were fundamentally identical in nature.
Axis intended to simply seize the power outright rather than experiment with it. Wouldn't it be far better to test it himself?
The members of the Crime Syndicate exchanged glances, then shook their heads in unison.
"Come on, pal. If we knew how to strip him of his power, we'd have done it ages ago. We wouldn't have waited for you to ask." Johnny Quick said.
"Asking you lot is clearly pointless." Axis gave a cold snort and then drew the Dragon Balls from his dimensional pocket.
Rather than devising some roundabout method, he might as well try using his own Dragon Balls to see if they could take this man's power. If not, Axis planned to simply kill him.
Under the infusion of Axis's immense divine energy, the Dragon Balls rapidly regained their power and reformed into seven enormous spheres. Killing the target would allow him to plunder the victim's power, and since this ability was too valuable, Axis decided to expend one summoning of the Dragon.
The members of the Crime Syndicate watched with undisguised curiosity. What on earth were these things?
"Come forth, Shenron! Come forth and grant my wish!" With Axis's thunderous shout, golden radiance illuminated the entire planet's sky.
A colossal golden dragon, its body vast enough to span an entire solar system, materialized before them all.
"O you who have gathered the seven Dragon Balls, I can fulfill any wish you desire. You may now state two wishes." The enormous dragon glanced at its creator.
The guy simply wouldn't let him rest.
Still, there had been two wishes remaining from last time, so this summoning could be treated as a single opportunity.
As the dragon's words rang out, every member of the Crime Syndicate stared in astonishment.
Fulfill any wish? Was this some kind of joke? Could it really be that powerful?
"See this man in my hand? He possesses the ability to kill others and steal their powers. I want you to transfer that ability to me." Axis said.
"Hmm, that wish is simple enough. However, I have a better idea. His ability is certainly formidable, but if you combined it with that child's power, it would be even more remarkable." The dragon's gaze had already locked onto Superwoman, boring into her abdomen.
He understood what his creator wanted.
Axis sought to acquire this particular superpower. But there existed an even stronger version. The child in that woman's womb possessed a far more perfect form of this power than its father.
Superwoman instinctively retreated a step and pressed her hands over her belly.
"What do you mean by 'that child'?" Ultraman understood immediately and turned to Superwoman with fury blazing in his eyes.
Using his X-ray vision, he clearly saw the as-yet-unformed life within Superwoman's body. It was an infant. Was it his child? Or wasn't it?
For years he had wanted to tear this Amazon woman to pieces, but if he did that, there would be no one left to carry on his bloodline.
That was the only reason he had let her live. But now even a fool could see what was going on.
"It means exactly what it sounds like, Ultraman. Don't you understand yet? This woman has been using you from the very beginning. The child in her womb belongs to Alexander Luthor." Owlman said.
"Shenron, are you saying the child in Superwoman's womb has an even stronger version of this stripping ability?" Axis's expression shifted.
"Correct. All the child needs to do is call out a name, 'Mazahs,' and it can seize any opponent's power. It can even seize divine power." Shenron gave his answer.
Good lord. This had to be a mistake.
That ability was beyond broken. It could no longer even be described as a bug. The father still had to kill his target first, but this child only needed to utter a single word.
"However, this child possesses no self-awareness of its own. To be precise, it is meant to be replacement vessel for some entity…Hmmm, let's see, yes Darkseid. It can only absorb divine power related to Darkseid. And once it has absorbed that divine power, it will inevitably transform into Darkseid." These words were transmitted secretly into Axis's mind through special means. No one else heard them.
As a dragon created by Axis, Shenron had inherited certain knowledge from before Axis's transmigration. In this universe, it had also learned a number of additional things.
So it understood perfectly well what this child would become in the future and why it had been conceived. The child was deeply connected to Darkseid.
This child would only be born after Darkseid's death. When Darkseid perished, his divine power would scatter. The child could then use its voice to draw all of that divine power back into itself and be reborn as Darkseid. That was its true purpose.
It was a backup vessel Darkseid had prepared in advance.
Axis frowned at this revelation. It seemed every top-tier cosmic entity had multiple contingencies.
He knew a thing or two about the Darkseid baby. If he recalled correctly, it had appeared during the later Dark Nights: Metal storyline, had somehow ended up in Batman's possession, and the Darkseid baby had ultimately been reborn as the true Darkseid.
"Then if you transfer this child's ability to me, will Darkseid be able to take over my body?" Axis asked.
"In truth, Master, you have already entered his calculations. During your battle with the Anti-Monitor, a woman was secretly observing the fight between you and the Anti-Monitor. She is Grail, Darkseid's daughter, born of the Amazon assassin Myrina and Darkseid himself. Her innate mission is to kill her own father, Darkseid.
"She is also the key figure who will, in the future, either seize the Darkseid baby or facilitate Darkseid's rebirth. Darkseid will use this child to obtain the Anti-Life Equation.
"Based on your memories, I have pieced together some intelligence you had forgotten. This universe is the New 52, and Darkseid clearly remembers everything that happened before the universal reboot." Shenron spoke.
It was fortunate that his master had summoned him. Otherwise, Axis would certainly have been swept into this maelstrom. Darkseid was by no means a mere single-universe-level being. He was a multiversal entity.
His true form resided on Apokolips, and Apokolips drifted outside all dimensions. Darkseid had already set many things in motion in this newly born universe.
"I do not know the full extent of Darkseid's schemes, but after witnessing your destructive God of Destruction energy, he has undoubtedly set his sights on that power as well. Everyone believes they are fighting against Darkseid, but they are all, in reality, helping him. Including his own daughter." Shenron said.
"Shenron, what do you suggest we do?" Axis's expression had turned grim. He had only just arrived in this world, and someone was already watching him.
The DC Comics universe was truly dangerous to the extreme.
"Leave this world, Master. Leave immediately. Use your ability and depart from this world." Shenron transmitted secretly.
At this moment, the members of the Crime Syndicate had no idea what was happening.
"The problem is I just sent the Emperor away, and I still don't know where he ended up." Axis said. If he had known, he never would have sent the old golden one ahead of him.
"Great Master, you may expend one wish. What you can do, I can also do, so I too possess the ability to send others out of this world. I can send the Emperor to a random world, and then you can lock onto that location and go there to find him." Shenron said.
"Then we'll do as you say. Now, whose ability should I take, the child's or Alexander Luthor's?" Axis asked.
"The child's ability is indeed stronger, but it shares a certain link with Darkseid. I would not advise you to acquire that power. Though the father's power is weaker, it is clean, and with your strength, Master, you will be able to safely assimilate it in the future. You had best not harm this child either, or Darkseid will become alert.
"By my calculations, the members of the Crime Syndicate will all perish shortly after traveling to the other universe. Then Darkseid's true form will descend, wage war against the Anti-Monitor, deliberately die at the Anti-Monitor's hands, and use this child to seize the Anti-Life Equation along with other divine powers." Shenron said.
"Understood. Shenron, my first wish is to obtain all of this man's abilities. My second wish is to send Neoth to another universe." Axis declared his two wishes.
Shenron's eyes blazed with crimson light. Alexander Luthor convulsed as though struck by lightning, and a bolt of black lightning erupted from his body before surging into Axis.
Axis immediately felt himself gain a transformation ability. By uttering the word "Mazahs," he could harness black lightning to undergo a metamorphosis.
However, this ability would not make Axis significantly stronger, as he was already more powerful than the transformed state. It merely added the ability to kill an opponent and steal their power.
The moment Alexander Luthor was stripped of his power, the enraged Ultraman obliterated his skull with a single punch. The bastard had dared to cuckold him. He had to die.
Shenron completed the second wish in secret as well, sending the Emperor, who had been in a parallel universe, away once more.
The poor golden pinapple had barely arrived and had not even figured out what was happening before he was whisked away again.
After all wishes were fulfilled, Shenron turned to stone. This time, Axis learned that he would not be able to use the Dragon Balls again for quite some time. In order to gather intelligence, Shenron had expended an enormous amount of power.
Upon seeing Alexander Luthor stripped of his abilities, Superwoman let out a sigh of relief. She had genuinely feared Axis would take her unborn child's power.
"I thought you'd go for the child's power." Owlman remarked.
"That child hasn't even fully formed yet, and I have no interest in stealing power from a baby, let alone an unborn one. Now, let's hurry to the next universe. We don't have much time." Axis said, his tone betraying nothing.
His conversation with Shenron had been conducted entirely in secret. No one had any idea that he intended to activate his ability and leave this world the moment everyone stepped into the transit passage.
"Let's go. My servant Alfred can open the Boom Tube at any time. We just need to link up." Owlman said.
As he finished speaking, a strange blue passage materialized before them. This was the gateway connecting to another universe.
Ultraman and Superwoman entered first. Once he reached a safe location, Ultraman planned to finish off Superwoman and the child inside her for good.
Just as the group was collectively stepping into the transit passage, a sinister red beam suddenly lanced toward them. It bent through several angles in space, aimed directly at Axis.
The eerie red light sent a chill of mortal dread through Axis, because he could sense that a single hit would be enough to kill him. This was a power of erasure, somewhat similar to Grand Zeno's ability.
This was the Omega Beam, Darkseid's signature technique, capable of erasing a living being from existence at the most fundamental level.
Had Darkseid actually made a move on him already? Had Darkseid detected Shenron?
Without a moment's hesitation, Axis grabbed Ultraman, who happened to be beside him, and used him as a shield, letting the Omega Beam strike Ultraman instead.
A scream tore from Ultraman's throat. After being hit by the Omega Beam, his entire body trembled violently and he collapsed to his knees. Yet he was not erased.
It was indeed an Omega Beam, but it was not the complete version. It had not been fired by Darkseid himself.
At that moment, a woman appeared before Axis. She wore black battle armor, wielded a great axe shaped like a curved blade, and had grey-white skin and blazing red eyes.
"Don't be so hasty to leave, visitor from another universe. There are things I'd like to discuss with you."
"Damn you, Broly! You used me as a shield!" Ultraman, prone on the ground, strained to lift his head and roared at Axis.
The others in the passage made no effort to help Ultraman, nor did anyone come back to support Axis. Every last one of them fled at top speed.
Because of this delay, Axis failed to enter the transit passage with them.
"You're Darkseid's daughter, aren't you?" Axis's body was already cloaked in God of Destruction energy as he spoke.
The DC universe was truly too dangerous. This world contained far too many things that could easily kill him. It was no place to linger. Axis had already resolved to leave.
"That's right. But I bear you no ill will. What I did just now was only to stop you from leaving. Otherwise, that one would have been reduced to ash long ago. I didn't use my full power in that Omega Beam. Even if it had hit you, it wouldn't have caused any serious harm." Grail said.
She needed to establish a cooperative relationship with this overwhelmingly powerful being.
"Your plan was exposed to Darkseid long ago. Who do you think your father is? He's merely using you. Goodbye." Axis had no desire to explain anything further. After that single sentence, he immediately activated his ability.
A passage connecting to another universe tore open. Grail's face filled with shock, and she lunged at Axis without a second's delay.
Axis showed no restraint either, swinging his fist to meet her. The two grappled and tumbled together into the spatial rift, and dragged along with them was Ultraman.